Imagining Artificial Intelligence Applications with People with Visual Disabilities Using Tactile Ideation

There has been a surge in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies co-opted by or designed for people with visual disabilities. Researchers and engineers have pushed technical boundaries in areas such as computer vision, natural language processing, location inference, and wearable computing. But what do people with visual disabilities imagine as their own technological future? To explore this question, we developed and carried out tactile ideation workshops with participants in the UK and India. Our participants generated a large and diverse set of ideas, most focusing on ways to meet needs related to social interaction. In some cases, this was a matter of recognizing people. In other cases, they wanted to be able to participate in social situations without foregrounding their disability. It was striking that this finding was consistent across UK and India despite substantial cultural and infrastructural differences. In this paper, we describe a new technique for working with people with visual disabilities to imagine new technologies that are tuned to their needs and aspirations. Based on our experience with these workshops, we provide a set of social dimensions to consider in the design of new AI technologies: social participation, social navigation, social maintenance, and social independence. We offer these social dimensions as a starting point to forefront users' social needs and desires as a more deliberate consideration for assistive technology design

Toolkits, cards and games–a review of analogue tools for collaborative ideation

Analogue tools offer distinct benefits for collaborative design ideation and can take a variety of tailored forms including card decks, templates, toys and board games. However, owing to the disparate and multidisciplinary sources of these tools, there is currently no easy way to gain a coherent view of the tool landscape. To resolve this, we conducted a survey of analogue ideation tools within the design and HCI literatures, and within commercial practice. Of 3,395 results, 76 met the inclusion criteria. The resulting collection is presented and classified according to 10 descriptors including a novel taxonomy for distinguishing 7 tool types (methods, prompts, components, concepts, stories, embodiment, and construction). We also discuss gaps and opportunities for future tool development in inclusivity, cultural-tailoring and embodiment. Our aim is to help designers and design teams more fluently select, customize, critique, analyse and/or build tools to support collaborative designerly inquiry

Technology-mediated engagement of people with visual impairments with nature

Spending time in outdoor nature is beneficial for improving physical and mental wellbeing. However, despite the advancements in mobile technologies and the rise in physical health tracking apps and devices, people with visual impairments (VIPs) spend less time outdoors. This thesis explores the use of technology in mediating engagement of VIPs with outdoor nature. Through the use of qualitative research methods, an in-depth understanding of the experiences of VIPs in open natural spaces will be developed. These will inform the framing of the design of prototypes of technologies to encourage exploration and engagement with nature for VIPs to be developed through participatory design methods to develop

Social sensemaking with AI: Designing an open-ended AI experience with a blind child

AI technologies are often used to aid people in performing discrete tasks with well-defned goals (e.g., recognising faces in images). Emerging technologies that provide continuous, real-time information enable more open-ended AI experiences. In partnership with a blind child, we explore the challenges and opportunities of designing human-AI interaction for a system intended to support social sensemaking. Adopting a research-through-design perspective, we refect upon working with the uncertain capabilities of AI systems in the design of this experience. We contribute: (i) a concrete example of an open-ended AI system that enabled a blind child to extend his own capabilities; (ii) an illustration of the delta between imagined and actual use, highlighting how capabilities derive from the human-AI interaction and not the AI system alone; and (iii) a discussion of design choices to craft an ongoing human-AI interaction that addresses the challenge of uncertain outputs of AI systems

Machine Learning Explanations as Boundary Objects: How AI Researchers Explain and Non-Experts Perceive Machine Learning

Understanding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) approaches is becoming increasingly important for people with a wide range of professional backgrounds. However, it is unclear how ML concepts can be effectively explained as part of human-centred and multidisciplinary design processes. We provide a qualitative account of how AI researchers explained and non-experts perceived ML concepts as part of a co-design project that aimed to inform the design of ML applications for diabetes self-care. We identify benefits and challenges of explaining ML concepts with analogical narratives, information visualisations, and publicly available videos. Co-design participants reported not only gaining an improved understanding of ML concepts but also highlighted challenges of understanding ML explanations, including misalignments between scientific models and their lived self-care experiences and individual information needs. We frame our findings through the lens of Stars and Griesemer’s concept of boundary objects to discuss how the presentation of user-centred ML explanations could strike a balance between being plastic and robust enough to support design objectives and people’s individual information needs

Interdisciplinary Insights for Digital Touch Communication

Communication is increasingly moving beyond ‘ways of seeing’ to ‘ways of feeling’. This Open Access book provides social design insights and implications for HCI research and design exploring digitally mediated touch communication. It offers a socially orientated map to help navigate the complex social landscape of digitally mediated touch for communication: from everyday touch-screens, tangibles, wearables, haptics for virtual reality, to the tactile internet of skin. Drawing on literature reviews, new case-study vignettes, and exemplars of digital touch, the book examines the major social debates provoked by digital touch, and investigates social themes central to the communicative potential and societal consequences of digital touch: · Communication environments, capacities and practices · Norms associations and expectations · Presence, absence and connection · Social imaginaries of digital touch · Digital touch ethics and values The book concludes with a discussion of the significance of social understanding and methods in the context of Interdisciplinary collaborations to explore touch, towards the design of digital touch communication, ‘ways of feeling’, that are useable, appropriate, ethical and socially aware

Virtual Reality and Its Application in Education

Virtual reality is a set of technologies that enables two-way communication, from computer to user and vice versa. In one direction, technologies are used to synthesize visual, auditory, tactile, and sometimes other sensory experiences in order to provide the illusion that practically non-existent things can be seen, heard, touched, or otherwise felt. In the other direction, technologies are used to adequately record human movements, sounds, or other potential input data that computers can process and use. This book contains six chapters that cover topics including definitions and principles of VR, devices, educational design principles for effective use of VR, technology education, and use of VR in technical and natural sciences

The End of The Digital Generation Gap

It is commonly accepted that the more an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is recent the more it is suitable for young people and unsuitable for older people. However, several facts suggest that this idea is no longer valid and will not be in the future. User-centered design methods are increasingly used in companies, ICT tends to be more and more user-friendly, and it seems that digital natives (or millennials) are not really outdated by the next generations in terms of digital skills. These elements lead us to assume that the digital generation gap may have been a parenthesis in history related to the democratization of the first and complicated computers in the 80s. If generation is no longer a factor of ICT adoption, old age however is still related to sensory and motor impairments. Thus, the issue that is becoming increasingly important for technology designers should be better consideration of accessibility

Revisión de la literatura sobre el uso de Inteligencia Artificial enfocada a la atención de la discapacidad visual

This paper performs a systematic literature review focused on the attention to visual impairment supported by artificial intelligence categorizing the relevance of contributions on machine learning. The main objective is to determine techniques that are applied for the attention to visual impairment using artificial intelligence during the years 2017 to 2021 from different relevant studies found in indexed bases such as Scopus, Web of Science, IEEExplore and Springer. From a total of 545 publications, 33 articles categorized in four areas, machine learning, artificial neural networks, natural language processing and artificial vision related to the field of visual impairment were determined. There is evidence of application trends with techniques that involve artificial intelligence and that allow opening fields where technology has a challenge that to some extent is a support to people with low vision and propose mechanisms to improve the quality of life.Este trabajo realiza una revisión sistemática de literatura centrada en la atención a la discapacidad visual apoyada por la inteligencia artificial categorizando la relevancia de aportaciones sobre machine learning. El objetivo principal es determinar técnicas que se aplican para la atención a la discapacidad visual mediante inteligencia artificial durante los años 2017 al 2021 de diferentes estudios relevantes hallados en bases indexadas como Scopus, Web of Science, IEEExplore y Springer. De un total de 545 publicaciones se determinaron 33 artículos categorizados en cuatro ámbitos, aprendizaje automático, redes neuronales artificiales, procesamiento de lenguaje natural y visión artificial relacionadas al ámbito de la discapacidad visual. Se evidencian tendencias de aplicación con técnicas que involucran a la inteligencia artificial y que permiten abrir campos donde la tecnología tiene un desafío que en cierta medida es un apoyo a las personas que presentan baja visión y plantean mecanismos para mejorar la calidad de vida